Do bathroom showroom retailers have insane markup?

NibblyPig

I need a new bathroom so I went to a local reputable showroom, has good reviews on google.

Had a long consultation, explained what I wanted, they had good visualisation tools and were very good.

They gave me a quote, but the items seem to have insane markup. Some examples:

- Reinforced acrylic bath £600. I can see a reinforced acrylic bath on Wickes for 300.

- A folding bath screen £550. I can see bath screens starting at £100 on amazon going to £200 for the nicer ones.

- Vanity units, £2000 for one including a sink, and £1500 for the other which will house the toilet. I think this just might be the normal price for nice ones.

- Cistern & Toilet - £540

- Electric towel rail £450. If I google electric towel rail I can see similar ones for £200-250.

The other stuff is things that are harder to compare, eg taps and fixtures etc

.

These prices do not including fitting, they are goods only.

I'm wondering if they're absolutely having a laugh? Or am I being silly and the quality of things I find online is going to be garbage in comparison?

Should I find an independent fitter and just buy everything myself online? Or can I give a fitter a list of what I want and they can measure up, check it's OK and then I can order it and they can fit it?

If the markup was a little bit then I would just use them but it looks like it's around 50% or more!

macman

Those designer showrooms and smooth talking reps don't come cheap...
The stuff you see in the sheds is generally low end and not comparable.
The best way to buy the high end stuff is to get your fitter to buy it, or accompany you to buy it. from his usual source, They should then get a trade discount which could be anything up to 30% off.

BUFF

I worked in the industry for many years - there is a definite difference in product quality (& support) across the industry so you have to be sure that you are comparing like for like.

dil1976

How much high street presence do those online stores have to pay for? Do you not find it better that you can visit somewhere physically see the product and gauge how it will look in person rather than taking a risk buying online?

NibblyPig

dil1976 said:

How much high street presence do those online stores have to pay for? Do you not find it better that you can visit somewhere physically see the product and gauge how it will look in person rather than taking a risk buying online?

Yeah this is why I'd pay more, a little more, but not thousands of pounds more. It's nice to have someone to talk to but at the end of the day I'm still ordering everything from a catalogue, they don't have my exact configuration in the showroom in the colours that I want.

benson1980

I bought our suite, taps and vanity units from a bathroom showroom/plumbers merchant. I cross checked some of their prices so for instance the toilet, sink, taps etc. It sounds like you might not be comparing like for like? There was a marginal mark up versus some of the cheapest prices online. We're talking £10 difference for the toilet. What I did find was that it was Howdens style pricing so 40% discount applied to get it to reasonable price. 

We went for calypso brecon vanity units- double one for toilet and basin 600mm wide slimline. Just fitted them actually this week save for a couple of finishing touches and I have to say they are really good quality. Obviously durability wise will have to see but the construction at least seems really solid. Just totalling up my quote it was £1153. This included slimline cistern and rather nice frontana basin with full width top. Therefore your quote seems really top end or very expensive. What size are they?

My total quote was £2600 for the above, taps (expensive brushed brass ones), matching waste etc, acrylic bath, toilet. This also including some misc. plumbing bits and pieces

Gavin83

NibblyPig said:

I need a new bathroom so I went to a local reputable showroom, has good reviews on google.

Had a long consultation, explained what I wanted, they had good visualisation tools and were very good.

They gave me a quote, but the items seem to have insane markup. Some examples:

- Reinforced acrylic bath £600. I can see a reinforced acrylic bath on Wickes for 300.

- A folding bath screen £550. I can see bath screens starting at £100 on amazon going to £200 for the nicer ones.

- Vanity units, £2000 for one including a sink, and £1500 for the other which will house the toilet. I think this just might be the normal price for nice ones.

- Cistern & Toilet - £540

- Electric towel rail £450. If I google electric towel rail I can see similar ones for £200-250.

The other stuff is things that are harder to compare, eg taps and fixtures etc

.

These prices do not including fitting, they are goods only.

I'm wondering if they're absolutely having a laugh? Or am I being silly and the quality of things I find online is going to be garbage in comparison?

Should I find an independent fitter and just buy everything myself online? Or can I give a fitter a list of what I want and they can measure up, check it's OK and then I can order it and they can fit it?

If the markup was a little bit then I would just use them but it looks like it's around 50% or more!

It really doesn’t sound like you’re comparing like for like. Like most things you get what you pay for and spending more for a better brand will generally get you a better product. Out of interest what brands are the bathroom shop showing you compared to what you’re finding online?

I think I paid about £450 for my bath recently but it’s a large double ended Villeroy & Boch and in all honesty it’s great.

I paid about £40 for my vanity unit but then again I built it myself. I appreciate most people won’t be doing this! I also had quite a lot of the wood already, had I bought it from scratch it would likely have been about £200.

The thing we did splash out on was the brassware. I’m glad we did too, you can certainly notice the quality. I wouldn’t scrimp on this, although you can certainly buy cheap taps, etc if you so wish.

Our bathroom ended up costing about £4k, which started off literally as a completely empty shell. That’s for reasonably high end products. However I did all the work myself, had we used a fitter I expect we wouldn’t have received much change from £10k.

katejo

NibblyPig said:

dil1976 said:

How much high street presence do those online stores have to pay for? Do you not find it better that you can visit somewhere physically see the product and gauge how it will look in person rather than taking a risk buying online?

Yeah this is why I'd pay more, a little more, but not thousands of pounds more. It's nice to have someone to talk to but at the end of the day I'm still ordering everything from a catalogue, they don't have my exact configuration in the showroom in the colours that I want.

When I got my kitchen done 12 years ago from Magnet, I visited their showroom. They actually had 2 showrooms with a separating door. One was for customers wanting Magnet to arrange the fitting. The next door one was for tradesmen who were doing jobs for a customer. The trade showroom was more basic and some of the kitchen ranges etc offered weren't the newest ranges. The guy who did my job recommended that I choose from the trade showroom and he would then buy the products and fit them for me. It worked out a lot cheaper/more reasonable. I nicknamed the customer showroom 'Magnet posh/expensive'
I would never buy such products online. I am now having redecoration of my living area done. I need to choose new lighting but find it really frustrating that stores don't display much. The out of town retail parks are too far away.

TELLIT01

Just because 2 items have broadly similar descriptions e.g. reinforced acrylic, doesn't mean they are of similar quality.  One may be much thicker than the other, for example.

Sebi_895

Yes they possibly do but ask yourself one thing, do you have the time and patience to get all the bits and bobs individually yourself, and deal with returns if they are wrong or size non-fit? When you go into a showroom its a kind of one stop shop for everything and you get a person or two that you can harass if things are incorrect. I'm not saying its the right choice as some prefer to deal with the whole project management themselves and do well. My main recommendation would be not to settle on the first price quoted, there is always room for haggling.

Doozergirl

Ironically, I suspect it's Wickes that have the bigger mark up.  Their buyers will be brutal.  

If you're not comparing exactly the same product, then you simply can't compare.   Different products are of different quality and I think it's fair to say that Wickes won't be selling anything particularly special.